New Research Links Long-Term Actos Use to Bladder Cancer

August 23, 2012 – Yet another study has found that Takeda’s blockbuster type 2 diabetes drug Actos (generic: pioglitazone) may cause bladder cancer, with the greatest risk of the disease faced by those who take the medication for a prolonged period of time. Concerns about the link between Actos and bladder cancer first surfaced in September 2010, when interim data from an ongoing decade-long study identified an increased incidence of high grade bladder tumors among Actos users. In August 2011, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) required Takeda to update Actos warning labels to include information about how long-term use of the drug had been linked to bladder cancer.

Actos Bladder Cancer Lawsuit Update April 8, 2014: In the first U.S. trial of its kind, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly were ordered to pay a total of $9 billion in punitive damages after a jury agreed that the companies failed to warn the public and medical communities about the bladder cancer risk associated with their controversial type 2 diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone). The lawsuit claimed that Takeda and Lilly downplayed or ignored concerns about Actos’ link to bladder cancer, and mislead health authorities in order to protect profits. Click here to learn more.

Free Actos Lawsuit Evaluation: If you or a loved one has been injured by Actos, you should contact our law firm immediately. You may be entitled to compensation by filing a suit against the manufacturer of Actos and we can help.

What’s the problem?

For the study, which was published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a research team from the University of Pennsylvania found that Actos use was linked to a two to three-fold increased risk of bladder cancer.

The team investigated approximately 60,000 individuals who took Actos between July 1, 2000 and August 31, 2010, and found that those who used the drug for less than five years had twice the risk of developing bladder cancer, while those who used it for longer than five years had triple the risk of developing the disease.

First approved by the FDA in 1999, Actos was developed by Takeda for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. It is a once-a-day pill that increases the body’s resistance to insulin. In addition to Actos, other pioglitazone-containing medications that have recently been linked to bladder cancer include ActoPlus Met and Duetact.

Last summer, research conducted by a team of French insurers found that a higher-than-expected number of Actos users were developing bladder cancer, leading to nationwide recalls in both France and Germany.

The recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is just the latest to confirm the bladder cancer risk from Actos. Already this year, a number of studies have come out verifying this correlation. In June, research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that Actos may double the risk of bladder cancer after two years of use, and another study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting suggested that the bladder cancer risk may extend to all drugs in Actos’s class, which also includes Avandia and Rezulin.

Currently, Takeda is facing product liability lawsuits from American Actos users who have been diagnosed with bladder cancer after using the drug. These consumers claim that for over ten years, Takeda failed to provide risk warnings regarding the long-term use of Actos, and that the current warnings remain insufficient, particularly for a drug that has been recalled throughout Europe. All federal Actos lawsuits have been centralized as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL), which is currently consolidated in the Western District of Louisiana before District Judge Rebecca Doherty. The first Actos trials are not slated to begin until November 2014 and January 2015.

Do I Have an Actos Lawsuit?

The Product Liability & Defective Drug Litigation Group at our law firm is an experienced team of trial lawyers that focus on the representation of plaintiffs in Actos lawsuits. We are handling individual litigation nationwide and currently accepting new injury cases in all 50 states.

Free Actos Lawsuit Evaluation: If you or a loved one has been injured by Actos, you should contact our law firm immediately. You may be entitled to compensation by filing an Actos injury suit and we can help.